Nursing Careers and Future Projections
What does the future look like for nursing careers? It is predicted that in the next ten to twenty years, things might be quite different from how they currently stand. As new technologies, treatments and drugs, shifts in health care policies, insurance policies, limited healthcare professionals especially nurses, indications are that the health care profession may have to reinvent itself. For instance, with advancements in technology, many functions could be automated. For instance, patient records and documentation, smart beds that can monitor patients vital signs, use of bar codes, and automated medicine carts could conceivably be used to save time and reduce errors in medication dispensing. Also voice-activated technologies would cut down the need to write down many things. Tasks such as serving meals could be taken taken over by trained aides to free up nurses to provide a human touch to their patients.
Due to nursing shortages, hospitals and other healthcare institutions have to use their staff more judiciously. Nurses will be tasked with spending more time at the bedside to serve as educators and care coordinators. This will refocus their role with their patients. As the lengths of hospital stays getting shorter due to medical costs, nurses must make most use of the time they spend with patients. Nurses will also work in more administrative roles and supervising positions. Given that, they will need to know how to access and retrieve knowledge and information in order to share it with their patients and their families.
The changes in technology will possibly attract more men and minorities into the profession. Greater emphasis must be placed on supporting teaching careers and recruiting educators from diverse cultural backgrounds to relieve the serious shortage of nursing school faculty. Therefore, more loans and scholarships for master’s and PhDs would also have to be in place, and the colleges would have to pay the instructors more money.
If the nursing shortage continues, hospitals may have to be reserved only for the very sickest. That means that the number of outpatient care will increase, as will the need for home health care nurses. They will also serve more prominent roles in clinics, consulting firms, insurance companies, and software and technology companies. Nurses in the future would probably do much more population-based or community health care. They will identify risks and establish priorities for specific populations and groups. They will provide community education and work with employers and insurance payers to develop programs that save money as well as promote health.
Medical personnel who work in gerontology and geriatrics, for example nurse practitioners also face what would be considered a bright future in terms of their careers. With people in the baby boom generation reaching retirement medical professionals will be required to focus on patients in this generational group. Further, nurses who are also baby boomers might not be ready to retire and may find themselves in a role of consulting. They would serve as healthcare providers who they themselves understand the needs of their patients better.
With medical and technology advancements, nurses will be required to focus more on disease and illness prevention rather than treatment. In addition, medical treatment that targets illness before they occur, and identification of potential risk will also enhance preventative healthcare. This will also mean that patients will need to take a more active role in learning more about better healthcare to prevent illness and disease. shortage and cost in healthcare will also add pressure to the system of care to concentrate more on wellness models rather than treatment models.
Despite what the future holds for the medical profession, nurses and other healthcare workers need to prepare for changing trends and for their evolving roles. In addition to remaining lifelong learners, they will be part of the transformative future of healthcare and medical care. But as you can already guess, this is far easier when one is passionate about their career.